Ten thousand London taxi drivers are planning a strike next month to protest the rise of Uber, the app that lets private drivers charge for rides, reports Bloomberg.

Protests and controversies are nothing new to Uber cofounder and CEO Travis Kalanick. He faces what he calls “protectionist schemes” in nearly every city where Uber launches, he said in an interview with the Financial Times' Tim Bradshaw.

But Kalanick can handle the pressure. Those who know him say he's a driven executive whose intensity can seem off-putting. Or, as one entrepreneur who has worked with him told us, "Travis is ego personified." Personalities like that can create great businesses, especially when they are taking on big established industries, like taxis.

Kalanick describes himself to the Financial Times this way:

“I’m a natural born trust-buster,” he says of his mission to smash the taxi cartels. “That’s probably the best way to put it.”